Everyone and anything familiar belongs to Janet. The mistakes are mine alone.

"What did you go and do now, Stephanie?" Helen Plum asked in a way that propelled me forward until Steph grabbed my arm and stopped me.

She linked her fingers through mine to keep me by her side and out of the line of fire.

"I rescued two dogs," she answered, "provided Olive with playmates, and now have two more ways of protecting her. That's what I went and did. Hello and nice to see you too, Mom. Our trip for the most part was great, and Julie is even more amazing than I remember. Guess that makes us all caught up now."

Just when you think Mrs. Plum's face can't retract any further ... you go away on vacation without telling her and come home from it with pets in tow.

"Having two such … menacing ... dogs around is not safe for little Olivia," she started to say.

"Mo ... guard," my wife commanded exactly how I and Zero showed her.

Ammo dropped his toy like it's on fire and jumped between where Olive was sitting on Steph's lap and Helen. Honestly, I couldn't have said who I wanted to have more protection from the Burg virus, my wife or our baby. Good thing Ammo had them both covered. Gunner was quick to provide backup even though he wasn't specifically called for duty.

"What in heaven's name ...?"

"Sorry ... I thought you'd like me to prove that it's safe for Olive to be around our new puppies. She is," my wife stated with confidence. "Go ahead and try to come near her with Mo and Gunny flanking us. I dare you."

"Is this your idea of a joke, to make my granddaughter afraid of me?"

I couldn't have loved Stephanie more in that moment when she returned our daughter's laugh and stood her up on her lap.

"Olive isn't afraid of anything, are you my baby girl? But for your information, Mom, I would never scare or manipulate her emotions to get her to do what I want. She already has her own mind and is smart enough to know right from wrong and good from bad. Mostly."

"She takes after her mother," I pointed out, purposely not calling off our dogs.

Our furry family members are relaxed but watchful. No one can approach my ladies without possibly losing an arm. As predicted, Helen wouldn't risk it. What Steph has said this past week rang true ... if people question the dogs, we question the people. And my mother-in-law is definitely uneasy around the two creatures Steph has dubbed cuddle-bots due to the boys' need/love of cuddling up to her whenever she sits still for longer than two seconds.

"No," Steph answered, "Olive just knows her Daddy and I won't ever let anything happen to her, so she can explore, play, and love, without fear or hesitation."

"We're so screwed," Santos commented.

He had purposely stayed in the lobby when he heard that Helen was here.

"Remember what I said about ours and Kane's daughter?" My wife asked him.

"Yeah, yeah, they'll be fine even if we don't become permanent shadows."

Little does Steph know that there are plenty of ways to keep even shadows from being visible.

"Whose daughter?" Helen asked, not liking not knowing everyone mentioned in a conversation.

"A friend of Ranger's," she answered, letting Olivia down so she could crawl further into the lobby towards the front desk and the Uncles manning it today.

"I know I bust Kane's balls and all," Lester interrupted, "but his pretty boy face would be sporting a pout if he thought you consider him just Ranger's friend."

I left the dogs with my wife and put one knee on the carpet beside Olivia to give her something to grab onto so she could pull herself up. The grin she gave me when she put both hands on my knee and rose up onto hers showed the beginnings of her first baby tooth. I felt Steph's eyes on me and I looked her way. The smile she gave me was as beautiful as our daughter's and just as mesmerizing.

"I think of Kane and Harper as good friends, and not just to Ranger," my wife answered. "Hey ... wait a minute! You guys were upset yesterday when you thought Launcher or another Miami guy was sending me flowers, now you're mad on Kane's behalf because I didn't claim him as my friend first? And they say women have the market cornered on mood swings."

"Don't be too hard on them, Babe," I told her, standing up with our baby. Olivia pressed her cheek to my chest and watched her Mama while she gummed the finger she'd latched onto when I was wiping away a drop of teething drool before it could fall. "Lester is just establishing their place in your life. If you see Kane as my buddy, then you may feel the same about them."

"We're tough SOBs, but we have feelings too," Santos added with his idea of an innocent face complete with exaggerated eye-blinks.

"All of you guys have more feelings than I do," Steph said, "even when I'd swear I still have baby hormones retaking control on some days."

"I'd hate to interrupt ..." Helen said not at all convincingly. She's getting more and more impatient at not being the attention-epicenter or the center of Steph's world. "But who is this Harper person?"

"Harper is Kane's pregnant and extremely excited wife. That's actually why we're in the lobby. We were just on our way out to get - and drop off - the baby stuff we threatened them with … now that we know they're having a little girl too. Having six months experience, and a still-newish memory of what the first few months are going to be like for Harp especially, I know exactly what products work best and which are necessary to have before you even think to get them."

Mrs. Plum's expression morphed from annoyed into flat-out confused. "You're going to be acting as a 'baby expert' to this couple?"

Steph sighed. "Yes, Mom. If you knew either of them, you'd know why this is a such happy time and big deal to everyone involved. I hate to break this to you, but I'm not in the Burg anymore. I have a life, friends, and a family, here that wouldn't recognize the woman I was before Olivia ... as much as you don't recognize who I am now."